1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to casino gaming machines and to the delivery of user-selectable recorded music while playing on a casino gaming machine, and particularly to a jukebox on a casino gaming machine that provides a system and method for providing an electronic jukebox for the individualized delivery of musical entertainment to a patron of a slot machine, video poker machine, or other casino gaming machine, or to a patron of an online gambling site.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gambling casinos provide a wide variety of games of chance to attract customers. Traditionally casinos were furnished with rows of mechanically operated slot machines. Players would crank the levers and wait for the dials to stop spinning. Mechanical slot machines could be quite noisy. Most modern casinos have replaced mechanical slot machines with electrically operated slot machines, which are much quieter in operation. In addition, several new electronic gaming machines are available for the solo player, such as video poker. Instead of the traditional coin slot, electronic gaming machines may use a tracking device to charge a player's account for each game and to credit the player's account with winnings.
A player tracking device is used to provide player tracking services to a player wishing to participate in a player tracking program. Typically, up until now, a player is issued a magnetically striped player tracking card that may be fed into a card reader on the gambling machine.
Once accepted, player information contained on the card is used by the casino to track a user's play on the machine. Based on proprietary player tracking rules, a player may be awarded account credits and incentives to encourage continued play on the machine. The player tracking credits and/or debits and incentives may be stored in a database connected to the player tracking server. The card is usually updated so that the player may travel throughout the casino and play other machines, yet still be credited with historical player tracking data.
If a player does not provide the casino gambling machine with a player tracking card, the player may lose out on valuable credits and incentives, notwithstanding intensive use of the participating establishment's gambling machines. Moreover, the casino loses out on detailed marketing intelligence regarding the player's usage of their machines.
However, magnetic cards may be easily lost or misplaced, and the magnetic strip may become damaged. Moreover, the quiet operation of the machines do little to enhance the player's excitement and level of enthusiasm. It would be desirable to provide each gaming machine with an individualized music delivery system that permits the player to choose his or her musical selections, to listen to the selections without disturbing players at adjacent machines, and to deliver the music in a manner that permits the casino to charge for providing the music delivery system in a convenient manner.
Thus, a jukebox on a casino gaming machine solving the aforementioned problems is desired.